As a member of the Forbes Wealth team, I've spent countless hours poring over the SEC filings and public records of the billionaires of the Forbes 400. I've valued private companies from gypsum producers to the world's largest restaurant chain and interviewed some of America's most successful entrepreneurs. We're all chasing the dream; I'm here to remind you that some people make it.

Who Got Rich This Week: A Vegas High Roller, A Drug Making Doctor And More

Each week at Forbes we scan our database of corporate insiders to see who got richer from the action in the stock market. Despite Friday’s mixed session, the major indices closed the week in the black. Driven largely by strong corporate earnings, the S&P 500 rose more than 2% over the past five days. Of the S&P 500 components that have reported first quarter earnings thus far, 69% have beaten Wall Street’s net income projections. That trumps the 63% the index has averaged over the past two decades. Though the top line beat rate has hovered in the 40% range, investors appear confident that a sizable correction does not lie right around the corner. Here, some of the corporate insiders that made a killing over the past seven days:

Prostone Paid

There is a lot of talk of late that post-secondary education may not be worth the rapidly ballooning cost. Ryuji Ueno, cofounder and CEO of biopharmaceutical outfit Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, might beg to differ. Ueno spent much of his adult life pursuing college, and several advanced, degrees. He holds an M.D. in medicinal chemistry, and a Ph.D. in that same discipline. Ueno also holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology. Perhaps most importantly, he holds 25.3 million Sucampo shares. Sucampo focuses on developing and commercializing drugs based on prostone technology invented by Ueno. Prostones are a class of pharmaceutical compounds that are derived from fatty acids. According to Sucampo, they are ”the only company developing and commercializing prostone compounds on a global basis.” What’s more, the firm can claim some 580 active issued patents on its prostone technology. On Tuesday, Sucampo announced that the FDA had approved their leading drug, Amitiza, for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation in adults with chronic pain. As a result, Sucampo’s stock leapt, closing on Friday up 40.4% over a week prior. As for Ueno, his shares are now worth $240.3 million, $69.1 million more than they were worth seven days ago.

Jackpot

If you’re a Forbes reader you are no doubt well acquainted with the gaming moguls who run global gambling from Las Vegas to Macau: Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, Stanley Ho and the casino king himself, Sheldon Adelson. But just because William S. Boyd isn’t a billionaire, doesn’t mean the gambling business hasn’t been kind to the Boyd family. Boyd is the chairman and former CEO of Boyd Gaming Corporation, a Las Vegas-based owner and operator of 16 casino properties from Sam’s Town on the strip to The Borgata in Atlantic City. Boyd Gaming also owns 87 acres of land along Las Vegas’ iconic 4.2 mile long strip. On Wednesday, Boyd Gaming posted first quarter earnings results, swinging to a $7.3 million loss versus a profitable first quarter last year. However, on an adjusted basis the company reported net income of 1 cent per share. Most importantly, Boyd logged revenue of $737 million, beating the $734.3 million expected by Wall Street. Shares finished the week up 35.2%, netting Boyd, who owns 19.2 million shares, a $57.5 million gain. His stake is now worth $220.6 million.

Real-Time Billionaires

Speaking of Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas legend lost $401.16 million to the market in Friday’s session as shares in his Las Vegas Sands Corp. shed 1.63% of their value. But of the 50 global billionaires whose wealth Forbes tracks in real time, none could compete with Amazon.comAmazon.com chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos. Amazon announced first quarter earnings after markets closed on Thursday afternoon. The world’s biggest internet retailer crushed Wall Street’s earnings per share estimates, reporting net income of 28 cents per share. However, the company’s top line number missed badly, coming in at $13.2 billion, well under the $16.2 billion analysts expected. In the wake of the announcement Amazon shares sank 7.23%, and Bezos lost $1.73 billion in paper wealth. Leading the winners in both nominal and percentage terms was another internet entrepreneur, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook shares rose 2.68%, netting Zuckerberg $327.37 million on the day.

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